Women’s National Volleyball Centre selected as a recipient of the 2010 WISE Fund

WINNIPEG- The Winnipeg based Women’s National Volleyball Centre has recently been selected as one of the 12 recipients of the 2010 WISE (Women and Sport Encouragement) Fund.

The Women in Sport Encouragement (WISE) Fund was created by the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS) to help finance sport initiatives and assist members of the sport community in Canada. The annual grant is primarily to assist active women and/or organizations that are currently offering or creating sport programs targeted to girls and women.

The funding received from this award will be used to help finance a partnership between the Women’s National Team athletes and the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Winnipeg. Team Canada plans on using the 6 athletes currently training in the centre to run a clinic in April for approximately 20-25 youth. The purpose of this clinic is to expose the participants to volleyball and allow them the opportunity to meet and greet with some of Canada’s best female volleyball players, which in turn could help increase their self-confidence and motivate them to potentially pursue the sport. Each participant will also receive a t-shirt and a volleyball, and enjoy some pizza with the national team athletes afterwards giving the girls a chance to mingle with the players and ask them questions they may have about how they got to where they are.

"Our team is so grateful that we were awarded this grant by the Women in Sport Encouragement Fund,” stated Tonya Mokelki, one of the National Team athletes currently training in Winnipeg. “We hope it will help make a difference in the kids lives. We are excited to be a part of the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Organization and cannot wait to work with the kids in a sports setting. We are very happy be be able to help give back to the community that has done so much for our program and has supported us for so many years.”

Plans are currently underway to coordinate this event for April 10, 2010. The Women’s National Volleyball Centre hopes that this will be the first event of many in partnership with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Winnipeg.